Foiled Beginnings
by sodesne ON HAITUS
Summary: Kuchiki Rukia never wanted it to happen again. She refused to allow someone else to die. No matter who it was. Even if it was a human boy with no respect and a surprisingly large amount of reiatsu.


**Foiled Beginnings**

Summary: Kuchiki Rukia never wanted it to happen again. She refused to allow someone else to die. No matter who it was. Even if it was a human boy with no respect and a surprisingly large amount of reiatsu.

-BEGIN-

Watching Shiba Kaien die was probably one of the worst experience she has and will ever go through.

Kuchiki Rukia never wanted it to happen again. She refused to allow someone else to die. No matter who it was.

Even if it was a human boy with no respect and a surprisingly large amount of reiatsu.

So when the hollow tore through the boy's body, she froze in her tracks and stared. She had been late by a full step. A full two seconds wasted by looking at the little girl who coughed feebly.

By the time her zanpakuto cleaved the hollow's mask into two, the boy had died.

His soul had not been eaten, but the body was growing cold. She watched the body convulse slightly as blood continued to pour from the large wound. Even if the boy hadn't died, she wouldn't have known where to start healing.

Rukia had wondered whether the boy's soul would refuse to leave. But after a full two hours of waiting (not idle waiting, she still had the boy's family to tend to), she saw no sign of a lingering soul.

So she continued patrol.

There would be no point in telling the boy's family. They didn't even know what truly happened. All they would recall was a truck slamming into the side of the house and the boy being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

He would be cried and mourned over until enough years passed and people began forgetting. After his own family's death, he would just be another person on the long list of hollow victims. Insignificant and nameless. He would just be another failure of the shinigami. Not the first but just as unfortunate.

The boy would mean nothing to Soul Society, but the his face would forever be imprinted in her mind.

The sheer determination to protect family that made a human go up against a hollow with a baseball bat.

Maybe that's what kept her that little human town for sixty years. Watching the boy's classmates visit the grave over the years. Watching the boy's younger sister's grow up and leave the town themselves. Protecting them all.

So when she finally returned to Soul Society, Rukia wondered whether she did enough. For Kaien and for the boy. Walking through the sliding doors, she felt the sudden necessity to find out the boy's name.

Something she's refused for the past sixty years. But as the doors back to the human world began closing, the sense of finality wouldn't leave her.

She took the pivoting step but never managed to turn all the way.

"Rukia?"

A vaguely familiar voice belonging to someone who definitely should not have known her name called out. She turned.

"Hey you, wait!"

And any thought of returning to the human world vanished.

The very face that haunted her dreams along with its dark haired twin. No longer twisted in desperate determination.

"Eh, I mean…"

Those eyes she stared into were bright. Just as bright as when the boy first insulted her drawings.

"Kuchiki-san?"

The same boy who wore a modern shirt and jeans was now clad in black. The same uniform she wore.

"Hey, uh, basically…I'm the new lieutenant for the 13th squad. And, well, the captain just wanted me to welcome you back."

The same boy who faced a hollow with a baseball bat. Instead of the baseball bat, the boy had a large zanpakuto strapped to his back.

"Thank you," she managed to respond. Her throat closed up after and words refused to come out.

"I'm Kurosaki Ichigo."

Rukia nodded numbly and followed the bright haired boy (_Kurosaki Ichigo_, she whispered in her mind) away from the portal.

They walked in silence, passing by the various barracks of other divisions. Various uniformed men and women called out their greetings and she responded and nodded in response. Rukia was amazed at how much yet how little everything changed.

And most of all, she was astonished by the boy, now man, walking in front of her.

Struggling to start a conversation (_about anything, dammit talk about the weather or something!_ ), Rukia never noticed when they finally reached their destination.

"Kuchiki-san, the captain is waiting for you in his office," the orange haired shinigami said promptly and turned to leave.

"Wait, Kurosa—Ichigo!"

She didn't know why but his given name flowed off her tongue easier. The other stopped but kept his back to her.

"They…they're safe."

_Your family. They survived. I made sure they lived. _

Her declaration was met with silence. The moment passed and she felt incredibly stupid. No one remembers how they died. She didn't. Why would he?

Parting her lips to apologize, she froze as he spoke:

"I know."

Turning to face her, he smiled, giving off a radiance she thought only the sun could.

"Thanks."

-THEEND-

A/N:Ah. There is my little 1 am Bleach spoof. :D I'm not that satisfied with this piece, but I think I got my thoughts out. So, I hope you enjoyed reading this. (yes, I know, I know, Aizen would have never let this happen but lets ignore him for a while)

Review please! I always like to know how people think in response to my own thoughts~!


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